Category: Middle Eastern

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Middle Eastern

Shawarma Al Halabi – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

My second last meal of my five-year stint in my Western Sydney workplace was shawarma delivered from Shawarma al-Halabi, a recently opened shawarmatisserie in the heartland of Merrylands, which until this point I had thought was named Shawarma al-Habibi.

We ordered via Uber Eats, where surprisingly there was on upcharge to cover what are no doubt some quite significant platform fees. My (new) wife (she was in the building allegedly studying) and I shared a chicken shawarma and a lamb shawarma. Both shawarmas are externally identical and thus I have not bored my already bored readers even further with a superfluous external shot.

The chicken shawarma ($10) was not the best, not the worst, it had good flavouring with the mix of garlic sauce and pickles, however felt a little bit dry and could have done with some more even more garlic sauce. The best Western Sydney shawarma I’ve had has been from Armani Restaurant and Armani’s remains the benchmark by which I compare my shawarmas. Perhaps Halabi apologists will argue that theirs are made in a different (Syrian) style, a different tradition and therefore are meant to be dry and not moist but I think that at least I think that subjectively at least it would have been better with a bit of extra sauce. I would rate Al-Halabi over Albeik however, which suffers from the same problem.

The lamb shawarma ($12) was in comparison quite significantly better. The addition of more greenery and sauce with parsley, onion, tomatoes, pickles and tahini meant that it was just overall more moist than the chicken one. Each bite of it added a medley of flavours into the mouth and was much easier to swallow.

I would recommend the lamb rather than the chicken and if you have the opportunity to have two I would recommend two of the lamb rather than one of the lamb and one of the chicken. These are my thoughts, don’t @ me.

Shawarma Al Halabi
137 Merrylands Rd, Merrylands NSW 2160

Categories
Middle Eastern

Babylon Bakery & Grill – Fairfield Heights NSW Restaurant Review

I’m almost certain I had written something about Babylon Bakery already, but I couldn’t find anything in the drafts or in the scheduled posts, and I couldn’t even find any notes taken from the meal, so I guess I’ll just do it again from memory.

We visited Babylon Bakery after seeing it recommended on social media by someone who I hope wasn’t a paid influencer. We ordered a relatively large amount of food to eat in, and unfortunately had to wait a relatively large amount of time (21 minutes) for our food to arrive.

We had a one kilogram mixed skewer pack ($40) which consisted of chicken tawouk, lamb kofta, as well as lamb meat skewers for a total of eight skewers worth. This also came with some coleslaw consisting of lettuce and tomato, as well as some seasoned onion, garlic and hummus dips, and chilli coated bread.

This was a large dish and extremely good value for only $40 with an overall huge amount of food. The chicken was my favourite, being quite juicy and tender, followed by the lamb kofta. The the chunks of lamb meat were less to my liking with a bit of gaminess to them, and overall a bit less tenderness than the other two options.

We also had a fattoush salad (regular size – $8) although, and I didn’t know this at the time, we probably could have had fattoush instead of coleslaw on our kilogram of mixed skewers. This was fine, it was what fattoush iss.

Unbelievably, we also had a chicken shawarma roll ($10), originally intended to be for the following day, but then I wanted to try some. This was excellent with a large helping of garlic sauce, and quite juicy with the pickles – not dry at all like some that I’ve had, for example, from Shawarma Albeik.

Overall
We ultimately packaged up the remainder of our kilogram of meat and took it home to eat the following day. Overall, the value proposition offered by Babylon Bakery was quite good, however I guess they’re not particularly well set up for dine-in eaters with only two small tables on premises. The majority of their orders were for takeaway, and perhaps if one is intending to dine there, it would be better to just order as takeaway, arrive 20 minutes later and then eat there, because sitting there waiting for twenty minutes was no fun. The food is all served in disposable stuff anyway.

Babylon Bakery & Grill
187 The Boulevarde, Fairfield Heights NSW 2165

Categories
Middle Eastern

Jbeil Cuisine – Enfield NSW Restaurant Review

What do you do with these? What is the completion rate on these, and what happens to the remaining pickles that are left over?

We really enjoyed the tangy batata bi kizbara ($16) – “deep fried potato tossed in coriander, garlic, mild chilli & lemon juice”. It’s hard to go wrong with deep fried potatoes in general, but the citrusy and garlicky sauce was just an excellent accompaniament. People with a pathological aversion to coriander do have a pathological aversion.

I didn’t love the sambousek meat ($16). Though the filling of mince and onion was dense and falvourful, the pastry was dense and dry and unexciting. This could’ve been better with an oilier or less dense pastry.

The samkeh harrah ($19) “oven baked barramundi topped w coriander, roasted nuts, tahini & chilli sauce had potential but was far too salty to the point of inedible for me, even eaten with Lebanese bread.

The skewers platter to share ($44) was seriously excellent. It featured 2 skewers each of  kafta, laham mishwi & shish tawook, all of which was extremely juicy, fresh and tasty – the Platonic ideal of what Lebanese meat skewers should be. This, together with the garlic and chilli sauces, was perfection, and should be an unmissable item for any first time visitors.

Overall: In our experience, an equal number of hits and misses. Use this insider info to avoid at least 2 misses from their menu and maximise the hits.

Jbeil Cuisine Enfield
Shop 1 2/12 Coronation Parade, Enfield NSW 2136
(02) 9067 3107

Categories
Middle Eastern

Mina Bakery – Westmead NSW Restaurant Review

I had this half meat half cheese pizza ($7) towards the tail end of my overnight on-call shift when I had to sleep at work. Alhamdulillah no one tried to have a stroke in Western Sydney overnight.

Physically it was no better or worse than your average half meat half cheese pizza, but emotionally, eating it on the footpath working back to work ready to do my third of five 12 hour days in a row, it was there for me when the NSW public health system was not.

Mina Bakery Westmead
Shop 6/24 Railway Pde, Westmead NSW 2145
(02) 8872 9712

Categories
Middle Eastern

Beirut Bites – Beverly Hills NSW Restaurant Review

The 6 falafel ($15) were really good. Nice and warm and moist on the inside, and crispy on the outside, accompanied perfectly by the pickles and side dish of tahini. They were, unfortunately, so good that we kind of filled up on them before our main arrived. It would be even better if they could come in a serving of 4.

The mixed plate ($34) was alright, but definitely had better and weaker components. My personal opinion was that the chicken skewer was the best of the three, with good flavour, tenderness and juiciness, as well as good synergy with the toum. Second would be the kafta, again quite moist, followed by the lamb meat. The toum, the hummus, and the baba ghanouj were all good though with both the pictured bread and the entire bag of Lebanese bread (unpictured) that came with the meal.

Overall I thought the food was good, but not neccessarily the best I have had. They were certainly open very late, which was a plus as it meant that I could catch up with my friend after finishing work at 9PM and then driving an hour.

Beirut Bites
457 King Georges Rd, Beverly Hills NSW 2209